Maguire

Any other Emory admits around? Would love to connect before August

I don’t know about MA but I was accepted for the PhD so I assume most decisions at graduate level have gone out, partly because I saw an MA acceptance on the results page.

I am an international student (although with US citizenship) and unsure about the situation with graduate assistantships and taxes? If anyone can enlighten me in this regard would be grateful because trying to work out how much of the income would be taxed.

Anyone on here been accepted to Emory and potentially going to turn down their offer for another one? Just trying to gauge chances of getting off the short waitlist

Good luck to everyone this week in what will likely be a big decision week! At the end of the day, the judgment is not about your worth as a scholar but more about the “fit” within the department. Nevertheless, best of luck!

Does anyone know what the status is right now with Yale? I saw an interview request on the results page, which seems a bit late for them, but if anyone knows generally when they are going to send out decisions that would be great. Also, if we haven't had an interview with them shall we expect that's not a great sign (even if we've had contact with POIs before)?

Yes - wondering if anyone knows anymore about the Princeton admits as it is a bit early for them?

Anyone know about Northwestern?

I'm not sure - maybe @TexasTiger knows more as I am not one of the Penn people! Good luck!

Thanks so much! Definitely will be super prepared going in to the interview. Yes, that's me.

Anyone have any tips for interviews? I have one upcoming in the next week and would be grateful

Anyone claiming the NYU interview? I didn't know they did them necessarily and a bit concerned now.

Yeah, I applied to a few more schools as well, I just don't want to list all of them on here but could do so privately. Oh interesting re NYU, I guess will just be prepared for any requests in the next few weeks (hopefully!) I am 20th Century American - Race & Resistance; Policing & Foreign Policy.

I don't think anyone on this thread has mentioned actually getting a Yale interview request yet, just saw one asking about it. From the submissions last year it looks like interview requests went out from around the 5th onwards, so I guess will see! Applied to several other places like Chicago, Brown, Cornell, NYU, Vanderbilt, Emory etc

Thanks - Yale usually does interviews too right? That was the only other one I was expecting interview-wise.

Does anyone know if we should be expecting to hear from Chicago re interviews? I saw one person post on the results page asking about interviews but I do not know whether it means they themselves have an interview? Thanks

Oh okay, that's good to know, so potentially I could still go for the 2022 cycle like I would be doing with Cambridge, the only difference in waiting is essentially having different LORs and being fully finished with the MA, but I'm not entirely sure that I want to take a gap year between MA & PhD anyway. Thanks! ?

Thanks for this information about the funding - I guess we’ll just have to wait and see what pans out but I’m glad I have Cambridge for sure (and the tuition, living costs there is not so expensive). I guess what you say about having to wait for PhD applications seems true in that their website talks about helping you with PhD applications post-degree, so that would have to be a consideration as well as I was planning to apply this fall if I end up going to Cambridge as their term starts later (October) and thus I’d have more time to complete applications. I guess with MAPSS you could always take a year off while waiting for PhD decisions to work and hope to earn some money though? Best wishes ☺️

Thanks! The letter said to expect the decision in 'mid-march' but hopefully it might come a bit sooner than that! ?

I’ve been referred to MAPSS too and am quite interested in seeing what they come back with, even though it means waiting a few more weeks. Adding on to @kleio’s query, I was just wondering if anyone knew how likely it is for referred PhD applicants to be offered a spot at MAPSS and if there’s a better chance for receiving funding due to this? Thanks!

Thanks, honestly I was purely going off the advice of someone who told me that was a good filtration process but I agree with you that it is not. I definitely am not going to operate in this manner at all, and see now that was probably bad advice. I’ve had a hard month with two family members having surgery and at times I’ve latched on to any advice on how to proceed with applications as it’s been a stressful time. I really don’t want that previous sentence to be held against me as it was written under bad faith and at a highly stressful time. We all make errors in judgment and I realise now this is no way to decide where to apply.

Hi, Thanks for this advice. Yes, I will be applying to non top 20 programs, I’m mainly looking at fit, which as you say is most important. In regards to the second part, I definitely get what you’re saying, this was just a piece of advice I received from someone else. I think it’s still important to get in touch as quite a lot of the places I want to apply to encourage contacting faculty before submitting the application, but I won’t rule a place out if I don’t hear from a POI. Best wishes!

1. I know that compared to Yale or Harvard, UCL and Cambridge pale in comparison and I wasn’t suggesting this would help my application next year, just that as a U.K. applicant these are our top schools (and are both in the top 10 for the QS world rankings.) I know that in some ways being an international applicant, even though I’m a US citizen, is to my disadvantage. 2. Thanks - I think most likely my dissertation will be the best writing sample to use. 3. I applied to too many schools this cycle and it wasn’t the best idea, but I was trying to maximise my chances. I did tailor my SOP to each application but I’m going to make sure that I do this even better for next cycle. It’s what I’ll be working on over the summer after I finalise my list of where I’ll be applying. I appreciate and thank you for your candidness but I have come away from this answer feeling discouraged about my chances of getting in next year as an applicant from the U.K. I think it may be time for me to step back from Grad Cafe, I appreciate everyone’s advice and support but I need to concentrate and avoid distractions. I’m pretty sure this cycle is over for me, so wishing you all the best and for my fellow 2022 applicants, good luck next year!

I think next cycle will be about the same in terms of competitiveness in that there may be more people applying next year. However, I think there’s some factors which might help 2022 applicants in that cohort sizes may increase slightly (but probably won’t be back to normal), more places will be open for applications so that will spread things out, plus there’s indications that tons of people applied this year due to COVID panic and feeling like going back to graduate school is a safe option right now, especially when you can get a stipend from a PhD program. Moreover, I think applicants who have gone through this 2021 cycle (such as the both of us) will be able to put together a better set of materials for the 2022 cycle and/or proceed on to Masters level study in the interim year (as I will be doing), so likely will be in a stronger position in the 2022 cycle compared to some for whom it may be their first cycle. A POI I talked to recently said they were hoping things would be more normal next cycle. I think things won’t entirely be the same but we’ll start to see improvements in terms of the pandemic later this year which should hopefully help decision-making overall. Wishing you best of luck with the remainder of decisions this cycle and don’t be too discouraged if not as I’m sure things will work out better next cycle! ?

Thanks so much, this is all really useful I agree, and I will most likely apply to some smaller schools. I think the main thing will be seeing who responds to my introductory emails when I send them in June, and that will give me a good idea of which departments are interested in my project! I'm also hoping to get some funding for my MPhil, but I may not find out until March/April! Good luck! I think re the SOP, I know I need to emphasise fit with the department and POIs slightly more than I did in this round. I think over the summer I will devote quite a bit of time to preparing materials, particularly the SOP as besides that the only major piece of writing is the personal statement which is only needed for a couple of schools. Yes, it is definitely frustrating! I am top of my dept. at UCL but I do think being able to say I'm doing the masters in this interim year will make quite a bit of difference reapplying next year! Maybe also some POIs will notice my name in the acknowledgments section of a book one of my Professors has coming out in the fall! (I was his research assistant last summer) He's pretty well known in the US as talks regularly about US politics and elections.